PHOENIX , Arizona -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Basketball great Charles Barkley began serving a three-day sentence in Arizona 's infamous Tent City on Saturday , jailed by the same sheriff whose autobiography he endorsed 12 years ago .

Charles Barkley bristled at the implication he should be wearing stripes instead of a red-and-bue sweatsuit .

`` You come here when you screw up , '' Barkley said at a news conference hours after he reported at the Maricopa County jail . `` I do n't blame anybody for this situation but myself . ''

Barkley , 45 , pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor drunken-driving charges stemming from a New Year 's Eve arrest after he left a Scottsdale , Arizona , nightclub .

A judge sentenced him to 10 days in jail , but his sentence was reduced in exchange for Barkley 's attending an alcohol-awareness course .

At the news conference , Barkley sat next to Sheriff Joe Arpaio , the self-proclaimed `` Toughest Sheriff in America . '' Arpaio is known for giving inmates old-fashioned , black-and-white-striped uniforms , making some of them live in tents and reinstituting chain gangs , even for women .

`` I 'm an equal incarcerator , '' Arpaio said of Barkley , who will be sleeping in one of the tents . `` We do n't discriminate . ''

He said Barkley has been `` a gentleman , cordial . ''

`` He 's taking his medicine , '' Arpaio said . `` I hope that something comes out of this . ''

In a free-wheeling news conference , Barkley spoke out against drunken driving , made some observations about President Obama -LRB- `` Rush Limbaugh and a lot of jackasses are giving him a hard time right now '' -RRB- and commented on felony charges singer Chris Brown faces for allegedly beating his girlfriend , singer Rhianna . Watch Barkley speak at news conference ''

`` I wish both of them the best , but it 's never acceptable to hit a woman . Period , '' Barkley said .

Barkley wore a red-and-blue sweatsuit , not the black-and-white stripes that other inmates -- who watched the news conference through a chain-link fence -- were wearing . Barkley said it 's because he 's on the jail 's work-release program , and bristled at questions about it .

`` None of the work-release people do that , '' he said . `` But if y' all really , really want to put me as low as I can go , I can do that and make you feel better .

`` I know when -LSB- someone is -RSB- famous , you like to see people humiliated . ''

Arpaio , who joked with Barkley over the pink underwear he routinely issues inmates , held up a copy of his 1996 book , `` America 's Toughest Sheriff . '' On its back cover , alongside endorsements by Limbaugh , Arizona Sen. John McCain and others , is one from Barkley .

`` This man , Sheriff Joe Arpaio , is a role model for all Americans , '' Barkley wrote in the blurb .

Barkley is a basketball commentator for TNT , which like CNN is a Time Warner company . A star for the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns , Barkley was named the NBA 's Most Valuable Player in 1993 and inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2006 .

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Charles Barkley begins serving 3-day jail sentence in Maricopa County , Arizona

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The jailer is the sheriff whose autobiography Barkley endorsed 12 years ago

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Barkley speaks out against drunken driving during topically diverse news conference

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`` He 's taking his medicine , '' Sheriff Joe Arpaio says of his famous inmate